A Realistic Look at Annual Funds

Our long romance with mass-marketing technology distracted us from this lesson. We actually were making real money from the annual fund, and it looked like a bonanza with seemingly infinite potential. If we really took the lessons from this insight that annual giving is not really so much about the money as about the engagement — if we try to leverage it — we might find an insight that again positions the glass to appear to be half-full.

There is a striking coincidence between a couple trends that show through this history. Volunteer-based fundraising was (ROI) inefficient relative to money and participation breadth. But it was quite effective at capturing a huge share of psychological real estate in the constituent’s time/attention continuum — it was very, very engagement-effective and efficient.